


Hopes and Schemes

by greylo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Grey Jedi, Snoke as matchmaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-04
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-27 00:45:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13869489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greylo/pseuds/greylo
Summary: Snoke decides to play matchmaker for Kylo Ren and Rey.(My interpretation of the Rey, Kylo Ren, and Snoke storyline in The Last Jedi.)





	1. Schemes

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the movie/written pre-novelization so it probably won't line up as cleanly now - womp womp.
> 
> (I have no place in this story. I come from nothing.) I own nothing.

After all this time, all these years of steady advancement, suddenly everything was falling into place. In some cases this meant falling to pieces, but Supreme Leader Snoke had plotted out and prepared for much of what had come to pass and was predominantly pleased with these results. He did not have time to revel in his galactic victories though, as he needed to arrange the next steps to be taken amongst the swiftly moving currents. 

Some immense losses were sustained along with the recent gains, but even within the new concerns, there was a potential for more than he could have ever planned for. There was a chance for a new dynasty, and an immeasurably powerful one at that, that he would be able to influence and reign over - there was finally a suitable match for his long-prized apprentice. 

Snoke's dear Kylo Ren had just made some great strides in his attempts to prove himself obedient to Snoke and committed to his vision of the future. Ren was on the verge of completing his training, and at the same time, a girl who was also especially strong with the Force, strong enough to best Ren in a battle, albeit while he was already injured, emerged from nowhere. This scavenger girl currently stood on the opposite side of the war, but such a challenge did not faze Snoke. He knew she was freshly attuned to the Force. He knew he could work with her how he had with Ren, and turn her to join them. Or at the very least, he knew he could utilize Ren as bait to try to retrieve the much needed information she held that they lost when she had been able to slip through their fingers. 

Shortly after Snoke had been mulling all of this over, Kylo Ren entered Snoke's throne room and kneeled before him. 

"How's your wound?" Snoke asked from his throne.

"It's nothing." Ren replied, with his head bowed.

“Hmm," Snoke stood up, "The mighty Kylo Ren. When I found you I saw what all masters live to see - raw, untamed power,” He walked forward toward Ren, "and beyond that, something truly special - the potential of your bloodline - a new Vader. Now I fear I was mistaken." Snoke still believed in the vast potential of the Vader lineage, but he often questioned whether Ren himself was the answer or perhaps just the starting point toward his ultimate goal.

Kylo Ren raised his head and looked up, through his mask, at his master, unsettled by the contempt he was receiving after all he had done, "I've given everything I have to you - to the dark side."

"Take that ridiculous thing off.” Snoke said with disgust.

Ren removed his helmet, revealing the patched up slash across his face that the scavenger girl had inflicted him with. He looked away from his master, avoiding eye contact.

"Yes. There it is. You have too much of your father's heart in you, young Solo." Snoke knew Ren could have defeated the girl, but something had made him restrain himself in their battle.

Kylo Ren looked up at his master, "I killed Han Solo." With Ren redirecting the subject from the girl to his father, Snoke turned away, "When the moment came I didn't hesitate!"

Snoke twisted back around, "And look at you - the deed split your spirit to the bone!" Ren looked down again. "You were unbalanced! Bested by a girl who had never held a lightsaber! You failed!"

Ren stood up quickly in anger but Snoke immediately struck him with Force lightning, sending him flying backwards.

"Skywalker lives!" Snoke yelled as the guards around the room drew their weapons in response to the commotion. Ren sat up where he had landed, as Snoke turned back around, returning to his throne. "The seed of the Jedi Order lives! As long as it does, hope lives in the galaxy." Snoke sat down and added, "I thought you would be the one to snuff it out. Alas, you're no Vader. You're just a child in a mask.” Snoke was cruel to Ren, even as he was gleefully envisioning his new game he was going to play with him.

After this meeting, Snoke was decided in the matter - they needed the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker; they needed to deal with this new threat from the other side; but also, the Vader bloodline needed to continue, and this girl seemed to be an ideal candidate for such a set up. Getting Kylo Ren and the girl together could take care of all of these issues in one fell swoop. It was time for Snoke to play matchmaker.


	2. The First Bond

Snoke knew just what to do. He also knew it could only work if neither party were aware of his involvement. He was to secretly bond Kylo Ren and the scavenger girl through the Force, just for short bursts of time, putting them together in a way that would oblige them to speak to each other and, more importantly, be in each other's presence. Snoke was not exactly adept in relationship matters, but he knew that through multiple constrained, and unexplained, interactions they could not help but feel closer to one another, thus garnering some type of relationship beyond their recent confrontations.

Snoke was also aware of the conflict still churning inside of Ren. He briefly considered the risk of losing him by dangling him in front of someone on the light side while he was in such a state, but he brushed those thoughts from his mind since the theoretical situation paled in comparison to the test that Ren had just passed. It could also be Ren's weaknesses that would appeal to the girl, that could lead her into feeling like she could reach out to him - like she could potentially trust him. This was part of why Snoke derided Ren, fueling his feelings of conflict, in their last meeting. But truthfully, he would have done it anyway.

There was no way to guarantee that any specific time would be the most advantageous to create a Force-bond, but Snoke knew that by this point the girl would be with Luke. When he was finally able to devote himself to a first block of time for his scheme, Snoke opened himself to feel matched moments of calm between Kylo Ren and the girl. In this way, he could get an idea of when they were both likely to be alone and at their most vulnerable to be sucked into such a set up. 

Kylo Ren began his day and remained leveled out for a good stretch of time, but the girl was dormant - Snoke had to wait for her to wake up, and hope that Ren would still be stable by then. The thrill of knowing he was about to get his first taste at toying with both their minds at the same time added a frenzied feeling to his impatience. When Snoke could sense that she was finally awake, he forged the bond. He could feel them lock into place. 

Rey had just gotten up to the sound of Ahch-To creatures right outside of her hut. Kylo was onboard the Supremacy, sitting motionless as the scar on his face was being tended to by medical droids. Out of nowhere, they both felt a strange sensation - a presence. They cautiously glanced at their surroundings and then, without any apparent cause, they looked forward and could see each other. It was as if they were in both locations together. They just stared at each other for a few moments, Rey still of a mind freshly emerged from sleep, until she was able to snap out of her dreamlike state to the full realization that her hated enemy was right in front of her. She quickly grabbed her blaster and shot at him with what would have been a direct hit to the abdomen had he truly been in the room with her. He recoiled at the shot that he discovered hadn't actually hit him and looked up to see that she was gone. She had the simultaneous revelation that he had disappeared from her as well, leaving behind a hole in her wall from her blaster. 

At this, the first attempt at bonding them proved to be explosively successful. So much so that Snoke himself dropped it prematurely due to the eruption of excitement - that they had felt that he then also felt. He refocused himself and brought it back up for just long enough to sense that they both were indeed deeply enthralled by what had just happened.

They had both gotten up, scurrying frantically in search of one another. Suddenly they felt that sensation again, and turned to see each other.

Kylo tried to make the best use of this renewed opportunity before she could vanish again. He reached out his hand toward her, attempting to perform a mind trick, "You will bring Luke Skywalker to me."

Rey just glared at him, seething.

Kylo brought his arm back down. "You're not doing this, the effort would kill you."

Rey remained silent. Kylo looked around, ensuring that no one else was nearby. "Can you see my surroundings?"

Rey interjected, "You're gonna pay for what you did!"

But Kylo continued with his thought, "I can't see yours. Just you - alone. This is something else." Kylo was fascinated by what was happening. Rey was exasperated and perturbed.

Just then, a door opened behind Rey. She turned to see Luke coming through it, then whipped back, worried that Kylo would be able to see him.

Kylo looked around, not locking eyes on him, and yet he said, "Luke?"

Luke called out to Rey. She spun to face him, and then turned back to Kylo, but he had disappeared again, much to Rey's relief but in no way diminishing her confusion. 

Snoke was not able to be an audience to what was said or done during the Force-bonds, otherwise he would have tried to hold it up a bit longer with the arrival of Luke to the scene. As he dropped the link a second time, this time on purpose, Snoke grinned to himself. His new experiment was promising to be quite amusing.


	3. The Second Bond

The second time bonding them was much easier to control. The anger was still there but it was lessening in favor of bewilderment. As Snoke felt them line up, he linked them again.

Rey had been staring out at the ocean during a rainstorm while Kylo Ren was overlooking operations on the Supremacy from a secluded suite. They each sensed that same presence again. Kylo turned around and they were facing each other. 

"Why is the Force connecting us? You and I?" Kylo asked in earnest.

Rey blurted out, "Murderous snake! You're too late! You lost! I found Skywalker!" 

"Did he tell you what happened?" he asked, curious to find out, and then he walked forward toward her, "The night I destroyed his temple - did he tell you why?"

"I know everything I need to know about you!" She said sharply, maintaining her acerbity in the face of his continued composure.

"You do?" He lowered his head to look her more squarely in the face, "Ah you do. You have that look in your eyes - from the forest - when you called me a monster"

"You ARE a monster."

Kylo got in even closer to her, "Yes I am."

Rey was taken aback by his accession. They both just stared at each other, but only for a few moments before they vanished from each other again. 

Snoke could sense the shifting feelings - they must have begun to actually converse with each other. Now that it all seemed merrily underway, it was time for Snoke to think creatively about how to use the Force-bonds to really push them together.


	4. The Third Bond

The moment he got an idea for how to raise the stakes, Snoke was so giddy to get the third Force-bond going that he dropped everything else he needed to attend to so he could get to it at the next window of opportunity. 

Since Kylo Ren and Rey were getting used to the idea of linking up, he could now add extra twists. In this case, he decided to bond them shortly after Ren wrapped up training and had turned in for the night. It seemed like he might be skipping ahead a few steps, but Snoke was eager to get some real progress with his pet project. 

He didn't even wait for them to match up this time. He knew when Ren had finished his exercises and returned to his chambers, he then could feel when he was hitting the right level of stability, and that Rey was also close enough to such a feeling, or at least highly likely to be alone as well. Snoke forged the bond once again and was quite pleased with the swirling rush of contrasting emotions he sensed almost immediately.

Rey was walking on the island in darkness when she suddenly felt the connection open up again. She stopped walking but did not look around. She knew Kylo was off to the side of her.

"I'd rather not do this now." she said, frozen in place where she had paused.

"Yeah me too." 

She begrudgingly, although also rather quickly, gave in to the bond, deciding to at least try to get answers to the questions that had been plaguing her mind. “Why did you hate your father?" She asked, finally turning to face him, but losing the strength at the end of her sentence due to the surprise of seeing Kylo as he was in that moment. He turned around to face her, revealing his unclad chest, and she couldn't help but get a bit flustered at the sight. She cast her eyes to the ground as she asked, annoyed, "Do you have something - a cowl - or something you could put on?"

Kylo enjoyed this and saw no reason to cover up. 

Rey sighed and got back to her questioning, "Why did you hate your father? Give me an honest answer."

Kylo said nothing, but walked toward her.

"You had a father who loved you - who gave a damn about you!" She yelled at him, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I didn't hate him.” he said firmly.

"Then why?" 

"Why what?" She didn't respond so he repeated, "Why what? Say it."

"Why did you -" she choked up, but got the words out, "Why did you kill him? I don't understand."

"No? Your parents threw you away like garbage.” he said, redirecting the subject from his father to her. 

"They didn't!" she exclaimed.

"They did - but you can't stop needing them. It's your greatest weakness - looking for them everywhere. In Han Solo. Now in Skywalker. Did he tell you what happened that night?" He asked her again, wanting to know what she knew.

“Yes." she said adamantly. Luke had informed her about that night in the time between this and the last time she and Kylo connected.

"No." Kylo retorted, knowing that Luke wouldn't have given her all of the details. He knew she had no idea about his side of what happened that night, so he told her. “He had sensed my power - as he senses yours - and he feared it.” Kylo described how he woke up to Luke, his master, his uncle, standing over him in the middle of the night with his lightsaber ignited and the intent to kill him in his eyes. Kylo fought back as he had to - to survive. Luke had been the one to force him onto this dark, destructive path. Kylo wanted to make sure she knew that. But Luke had made no mention of lightsabers in his version of the story, or any attempts to murder his nephew. 

“Liar." Rey said, shaking her head in disbelief.

Kylo got in closer to her, "Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. That's the only way to become what you're meant to be."

And at that, they disappeared in front of each other again.

Snoke ended the bond and felt gratified - it seemed to have gone as well as he could have hoped for. All the reflexive anger he had felt, which had mostly come from Rey's side, had died down considerably, especially with this third bond. Over the course of this session, their feelings had lined up in ways he hadn't felt before. They had the potential to hit on the same wavelengths, and even they seemed to be sensing that as well now. 

The third time had been the charm. Snoke felt the turning of the tides and knew the true beginning of this dynasty could be just around the corner. And all thanks to his meddling.


	5. The Fourth Bond

The entire duration of Rey's stay on Ahch-To had been completely the opposite of what she had hoped for. The man she had most wanted to meet was doing his best to keep his distance from her, while the man she considered her greatest enemy was somehow, and impossibly so, the one that she was speaking to on a regular basis. She desired to learn something, anything, about the power she had inside of her, but instead of receiving any substantial guidance from Luke, she was left to her own devices most of the time. She was very accustomed to solitude, and waiting, but it was not what she had travelled so far and at such tumultuous point in time for, nor would she be able to wait for very long. She needed to get back to the Resistance. One of the hardest facts she was having to face was that it seemed she would fail in her task of bringing Luke back with her. Everyone had put their hopes in her, but each day it was becoming bitterly clear that she was going to let them all down, crushing one of the last chances they had at fighting back against the First Order.

In one of her brief moments with Luke, when he barely grazed the surface of explaining to her what the Force even was, she had felt a connection to a part of the island - a dark, cold pit that had sucked in her attention. Luke had admonished her for allowing it in so easily, and yet, with no other apparent avenues of moving forward, and again left alone, she felt she had to examine it to see if there was anything for her there. 

She had just had another Force connection with Kylo Ren, one that had left her feeling even more unsure about Luke, and right after it was over, she felt that dark spot on the island calling to her again. She made her way down to it and slipped inside, plunging into the water below. She swam and then crawled up onto a rocky ledge, standing to face a dark, reflective surface. She reached out to touch the glassy rock and as her fingertips touched the fingertips in her reflection, she was suddenly in a line up - in a succession of her reflected self that went on seemingly infinitely. She had been transported to an illusory place, more a state of mind than an actual location, and as she was able to pass through all of her repeated selves, she stepped forward once again to the rock wall and again reached out to touch it.

She felt that this was it - this was her chance to get answers. "Let me see them - my parents. Please." she whispered to the wall, pleadingly.

With her fingers on the now clouded surface, she could see the silhouettes of two figures walking toward her on the other side of it. The two merged into one as they got closer to her, and the figure raised its hand, lining up its shadowy fingertips with hers. The expectancy she had for what she was about to be shown was enormous - she wanted so much to be done searching. The wall then turned into a clear mirroring surface, but instead of getting any answers, Rey was left facing her own reflection again. She fell to her knees, thoroughly distressed.

As she left the pit, deep feelings of confusion, loneliness, and darkness washed over her like the waves crashing on the rocks below. She rushed back to her hut as rain started to fall, all the while thinking about how ashamed Luke had made her feel about connecting with that place at all and how those feelings were tenfold now that she had physically gone down to delve into it even further. She had never felt so lost in her life and she had no one she could turn to. Even if she was to get off the planet immediately, she knew no one who would possibly be able to understand. 

At this, she thought of Ben Solo. He had been drawn into these types of feelings too. If he was to be believed, Luke had almost killed him over his openness to the darkness, which for all she knew could have been in the exact unknowing mixed up way that she was now wrestling with. Luke! Luke Skywalker! His own uncle had turned on him and must have made him feel like he had no choice! He pushed him away - practically forced him wholly into the darkness - not entirely dissimilar from how Luke was pushing her away now, leaving her to deal with these unexplained feelings alone.

All of her emotions boiled up, overflowing and overwhelming her right as she arrived back at her hut. She needed to yell, but she thought that if she did so now, she'd split herself in two.

Kylo Ren felt as though he'd gotten the wind knocked out of him. As he caught his breath, he was submerged in a tangled mess of emotions that were all too familiar for him. The difference was that these were freshly formed, and they weren't his. He had just been thinking of her, but he wasn't sure if he was correct in recognizing these feelings as hers.

As the noise of all the frustrations hit their peak, there was suddenly silence. Rey and Kylo looked up to see each other once again. The amount of relief Rey felt shocked her, but it was a welcome experience after all that had led up to that moment. Kylo was incredibly intrigued by the difference in reception he got from her this time and also by the fact that it felt like this bond wasn't just randomly happening like the rest had. It seemed that she needed him - needed to talk to him.

She stood there just staring at him, not knowing how to start, so he took his cue, “This time feels somehow different.”

She felt it, too, "I think this one might actually be my fault. I've been running through these thoughts and I was linking them to you - "

"What thoughts?" 

Rey began by explaining what had happened with Luke. Kylo knew exactly how it felt to unconsciously find himself getting to that kind of place only to be reprimanded, and by Luke, in a way that not only didn't help the situation, but made it easier to go in deeper. As they related over this, Rey and Kylo got in closer and sat down, lining up with each other.

She then told him about what had transpired with the pit - how it had called to her again, how she went down inside of it and found herself echoed there. "I should have felt trapped or panicked. But I didn't. This didn't go on forever - I knew it was leading somewhere - that at the end it would show me what I came to see." She told him how she had asked the wall to show her her parents, how she she felt so sure it would, but then it didn't. 

By this point, the fire she was seated next to in her hut had dried her off from the rain. "I thought I'd find answers here. I was wrong. I'd never felt so alone.”

"You're not alone." Kylo said, completely understanding her struggle to make sense of the dark and the light of the Force. 

Rey looked up and into his eyes, "Neither are you." 

Kylo knew that she wouldn’t be able to fall in line with the Jedi Code. She would have suffered with the strictness of Luke's training, just like he had. On Starkiller Base, she had fought him with a passion befitting the dark side, and in that passion, she had immense strength. She needed some training, to be sure, but not the restraining that the Jedi would demand. Kylo also felt that she would never be able to abide by Jedi rules about emotion in general, but specifically their thoughts on attachments. He wondered if she even knew that she wouldn't be allowed to fall in love.

Rey could sense that there was still light in Ben, especially in this moment. He had been forced to turn to Snoke, and then Snoke had been corrupting him for use of his power, restricting him completely to darkness. In using his powers for evil, Ben had become a mangled version of who he should have been.

"It isn't too late.” Rey said softly to him.

There had been a complete turnaround in Rey's emotions from when she had first gotten back to her hut. She had a sense of peace - and Kylo had it, too. It was as if they both had been in need of something that they were realizing they could get from each other. They both also felt in control of this bond. It had been going on for much longer than the rest had and there was no fear of it suddenly dropping out like had happened each time before. 

In an effort to test the limitations of these Force-bonds, and also because she had an urge to reach out to him, Rey lifted her hand and extended it to Kylo. He was electrified at the offer. He had been similarly curious to try out such an experiment, though he hadn't dared to make the first move. He removed his glove and then slowly raised his hand to meet hers. They both gently brought their hands to each other's, hesitant to discover that they might just pass through one another, but as they came together, their fingertips touched.

With their hands connecting them, they both saw a vision - a vision so vivid and bright that a tear spilled down Rey's face. If they could have, they would have stayed like this for as long as the vision, and their arms, would have held, but it all ended abruptly. Luke had come into Rey's hut, erupting at the sight of the two of them, hand in hand, with a "Stop!" that caused the walls of the hut to burst and crumble down around them. Rey and Kylo whipped their heads to face Luke, and their connection - through their hands and through the Force-bond - was gone.

After seeing that Kylo had disappeared, Rey stood up and yelled to Luke, "Is it true? Did you try to murder him?"

"Leave this island - now!" Luke said, furiously, and he turned to dash away from her.

Rey followed, calling after him, "Stop. Stop!” He kept on going, so she knocked him down from behind with her quarterstaff. As she stood over him, she bellowed through the rainstorm, "Did you do it? Did you create Kylo Ren?"

Instead of answering her, Luke got up and summoned a metal rod from nearby, inciting a skirmish between the two of them. After several hits, Luke was able to get her staff from her and throw it off to the side. Rey then immediately summoned the Skywalker lightsaber, ignited it, and charged toward Luke, who then fell backwards while trying to avoid her. 

Rey turned off the lightsaber as she again stood over Luke, "Tell me the truth."

After a pause, Luke finally let it out. He told her how he had sensed the darkness building in Ben, and that on that fateful night, he had discovered that it was beyond what he had even imagined - Snoke had already turned his heart. In a brief moment of pure instinct, Luke ignited his lightsaber, thinking he could stop all the terror that Ben would bring by killing him then and there. But that moment passed like a fleeting shadow - he wasn't going to follow through. He felt incredibly ashamed of his action, but he also had no way to undo what he had done - Ben had woken up to Luke standing over his bed, lightsaber in hand. "The last thing I saw were the eyes of a frightened boy whose master had failed him." Ben instinctively summoned his lightsaber to fight back and it was all over. Luke had forced Ben's hand. This was why Luke had gone into hiding, why he had closed himself off from the Force - his failure and the failure of the Jedi ways had destroyed Ben, his beloved nephew, and caused the exact pain and suffering that he wanted so desperately to prevent.

The rain fell heavily on Luke, still on the ground, and Rey, still standing over him. "You failed him by thinking his choice was made. It wasn't! There's still conflict in him. If he returned from the dark side, that could shift the tide. This could be how we win!"

"This is not going to go the way you think!" Luke growled back against her certainty. 

Rey bent down and got in closer to Luke, "It is. Just now, when we touched hands, I saw his future - as solid as I'm seeing you. If I go to him, Ben Solo will turn."

"Rey - don't do this!" Luke said, concerned.

She stood back up and once again offered him his lightsaber, as she had when she first found him on the island, but he just closed his eyes and turned his face away, again declining. 

She lowered her arm and shook her head. "Then he's our last hope."

She had made up her mind. Everything was so dire, and there was no more time to lose. The great hope for Luke she came to the island with had all but fizzled out and had been replaced with an immense hope for Ben. Her belief in the vision she had just seen was also a major driving force behind her clarity and action. 

Rey grabbed her things, got onto the Millennium Falcon, and headed straight to Ben. She might not be able to return to the Resistance with Luke, but she knew that if she could bring back Ben, they'd have more than a fighting chance. She also yearned to see him again, and in person. 

Snoke turned over in his sleep. He had been hit with a strange sense of glee. Colossal wins had been achieved, leading him ever closer to victory in his plans - Kylo Ren and Rey had connected deeply and Rey was on her way to unite with Ren, giving herself over to them. Snoke was unaware in his slumber of any of these happenings, but he involuntarily smirked as he turned back over.


	6. Together

The insanity of what Rey was doing did not escape her. She knew that, from the outside, going of her own accord right to the enemy would have seemed utterly foolish. But she was very much on the inside, and it not only seemed like the one option she had left, it felt right. From the moment that she had touched hands with Ben, it was as though she had been set on a path that she was now floating effortlessly on. Her confidence in what she was doing offset any weight of how irresponsible it all was. 

As she arrived at her destination, Rey kept replaying the vision in her mind. It had been so tangible that it felt more like a memory of what had already occurred than a fleeting glimpse of what might be. At the core of it, she had seen herself and Ben together in a way that could only mean that he would return to the light, and with her as part of that. She could help bring him back. She knew where he had been because she was there now. She had felt the light still in him even though he was fighting self-destructively against it. Rey needed to help get him away from Snoke and not let Luke's unfortunate act hold as Ben's cutoff point with the light.

Kylo also kept going over the vision - he felt incredibly empowered by the image of them together. She had revealed to him that she was facing many of the same feelings that had led him to the dark side so he felt assured that the vision meant that she would soon turn and join him. He also knew that she was on her way, coming right to him. He could feel it. He wasn't sure of how things were about to play out, but the serenity created in their last Force-bond, which he had only been momentarily jolted from when Luke broke their bond, was still coursing through him, and he knew that they would just need to go along as necessary with whatever was to happen, and everything would end up as it should. His entire life seemed to have been leading up to this, and it all finally felt like it made sense. He was ready.

Rey's escape pod that she used to board the Supremacy came to a rest just feet from where Kylo had been waiting for her. Through its window, they looked into each other's eyes, and they knew that they both were exactly where they were because of what had transpired in their last Force-bond. Now that they were together, it all felt solidified - they both felt that they, and their futures, were bound to each other.

Kylo stepped to the side as two stormtroopers approached the pod with stun cuffs for Rey. The capture and cuffing were to be expected, and Rey accepted it all as part of the process of what she came for.

When they were finally alone together, in an elevator on their way to Snoke's throne room, Rey spoke to Kylo, this time knowing how to start what she needed to say to him, “You don't have to do this. I feel the conflict in you. It's tearing you apart."

Kylo was silent - he just stared forward, trying to focus.

“Ben," Rey said softly, and at this, he looked at her, "when we touched hands I saw your future - just the shape of it but solid and clear." She stepped closer to him, "You will not bow before Snoke. You'll turn." She then added with a whisper, "I'll help you. I saw it."

"I saw something too. Because of what I saw I know that when the moment comes, you'll be the one to turn. You'll stand with me.” He then added what he thought she would be most interested to hear, “Rey, I saw who your parents are.”

Caught off guard, Rey stepped backward away from him just as the elevator was slowing.

The crux of their visions had been the same, but they couldn't help but interpret it from where they were currently standing, as opposed to where they could potentially end up. They saw themselves together, but they both took it to mean that the other would come to where they were - they each couldn't possibly imagine themselves changing, turning to the other side, let alone a possible third option. The clashing retellings of what they had seen slightly diminished the glow that they had been running on, but they both still felt strengthened by their hopes for the future, and fearless as they walked into Snoke's throne room. They both had no real grasp of the extreme danger and madness of it all.

Snoke looked on with smug joy as Kylo Ren and Rey walked toward him, together. He impressed himself with how quickly his objective had come to fruition. 

"Well done my good and faithful apprentice! My faith in you has been restored." Ren kneeled just a few steps behind where Rey stopped.

Snoke turned his eyes directly to Rey, "Young Rey - welcome."

The cuffs on Rey's wrists released and fell to the ground.

"Come closer, child." Snoke said to Rey, but she stayed firmly in place. "So much strength. Darkness rises and light to meet it. I warned my young apprentice that as he grew stronger his equal in the light would rise.” Snoke summoned the Skywalker lightsaber from Ren's hands. “-Skywalker,” Snoke continued his thought with a chuckle, "I assumed - wrongly.”

Snoke looked over Rey again, "Closer, I said."

Rey again didn't move, until she was slowly brought forward through the Force, dragged on her toes, towards Snoke.

“You underestimate Skywalker and Ben Solo and me. It will be your downfall.” Rey said as she was pulled in close to Snoke and brought to a stop in front of him.

What a shame. It hadn't entirely worked after all - she still stood staunchly in opposition. His dream dynasty was lost, and yet Snoke dropped any regret in the matter almost immediately. He was already focusing on getting the information he needed and then getting rid of her, taking care of two of the three issues he had hoped to with her. 

Snoke gasped at Rey's defiant statement, feigning concern, "Have you seen something? A weakness in my apprentice? Is that why you came?"

Rey couldn't help but give him a small, fleeting smirk.

Snoke laughed, he knew she must have felt empowered from being able to link up with Ren. She must have thought she had secret access and insight on him. But Snoke had set it up. He knew all about it - or at least he thought he did. He had no idea about their last bond and their shared vision which had been what actually brought them together in front of him. He didn't realize that he was only partially responsible for them linking up at this point. "Young fool, it was I who bridged your minds. I stoked Ren's conflicted soul. I knew he was not strong enough to hide it from you. And you were not wise enough to resist the bait."

Rey and Kylo's hearts sunk simultaneously - had everything been a lie? They had both felt so sure, felt that it was all their own. And did that mean that the vision was also false? Something that Snoke had planted? 

The realization of what she had just done came crashing down on Rey - she had fallen for Snoke's trick and had walked so eagerly into his trap. How could she have been so irrational? Her sense of conviction, which just moments ago had been sturdy and sure, was giving way beneath her, but she held onto one last bit of hope in knowing that Ben hadn't been in on it - he had also been a victim of this ploy. There was a chance that what she had felt in him was still true.

Kylo was as devastated as Rey, but his silent hatred towards Snoke for what he had done to them, all he had done to him leading up to this newest mind game, and what he was about to do to Rey now, helped him in his resolution for what he needed to do. He also felt that even if the set up for what brought him and Rey together had been false, the results were real. He was able to concentrate, thinking up a plan.

"And now you will give me Skywalker." Snoke said, raising his hand to the side of Rey’s head as he pulled her in even more, "Then I will kill you with the cruelest stroke."

“No." she said, unflinchingly, even as she was so unbearably close to him.

“Yes." he said with smile, just before he forced her upwards and back - restraining her in mid-air while he stayed seated on his throne. With his arm outstretched to her, Snoke demanded slowly, "Give me everything."

Kylo looked up at Rey, but had to turn his gaze downward in attempt to keep himself from lunging forward and acting before the there was a viable strategy for getting her safely out of there. Rey let out a long, painful scream above him - Snoke was pulling so much out of her. Most of what he needed was fresh in her mind since it had all fallen upon her so recently. He devoured every bit of it, greedily.

When Snoke had gotten what he wanted, he released Rey, causing her to drop down, crashing onto the ground below.

Snoke laughed with the new information he had gotten from her, "I did not expect Skywalker to be so wise! We will give him and the Jedi Order the death he desires. After the rebels are gone we will go to his planet and obliterate the entire island."

Rey stood up and summoned the Skywalker lightsaber from beside Snoke but he made it pass her, knock her on the head, and then return to his side.

"Such spunk. Look here now.” Snoke said, as he forced her to slide to the side of the room to face a giant magnifying glass that showed her the Resistance's perilous attempt to flee from the First Order, "The entire Resistance - on those transports." Rey watched in horror as they were blown up, one by one, "Soon they will all be gone. For you, all is lost."

Rey turned, enraged, and summoned Kylo's lightsaber from him, igniting it and setting off the guards to all draw their weapons. Now that he was weaponless, Kylo was thrown yet another obstacle he needed to figure out a way around. He wasn’t opposed to her using his lightsaber though, in fact he was heartened at the sight of her wielding it.

"Oh! Still that fiery spit of hope.” Snoke was entertained and impressed by the courage and power that Rey displayed. What a waste - the greatness that could have been! He was, however, still extremely comforted by finally knowing Luke's location. 

"You have the spirit of a true Jedi!" Snoke yelled to Rey.

Rey ran towards Snoke, about to strike, but with the wave of his finger, she went flying off and back to where she had started, a few steps in front of Kylo. His lightsaber fell from her hands and slid back to where he still knelt. With his lightsaber again within reach, Kylo’s options were opening back up. 

Snoke continued, “- and because of that, you must die.” Snoke forced Rey to hover on her knees and then spun her around to face Kylo. “My worthy apprentice - son of darkness, heir apparent to Lord Vader - where there was conflict I now sense resolve. Where there was weakness - strength."

Kylo looked at Rey, who was breathing heavily in front of him, struggling against her invisible restraints. 

“Complete your training and fulfill your destiny.” Snoke commanded, looking down from his throne.

Kylo picked up his lightsaber and stood before Rey. She slowly looked up at him. He looked down to her, and said, "I know what I have to do.”

"Ben." she whispered.

Snoke laughed, "You think you can turn him? Pathetic child."

Kylo's silence and seeming obedience during the whole ordeal had given Snoke a false sense of security. He had forgotten to even consider that Kylo may have been bothered by how he had tricked him. Snoke took Kylo's reticence to mean that he must not have cared about Rey in the way that he could sense, and had discovered, that she did about him - she delivered herself right to them for his sake after all! Kylo hadn't even so much as flinched the entire time she was getting tortured right in front of him.

But Kylo did care. He wanted their vision to be his reality. The whole time Snoke was pulling information from her, he wanted her suffering to stop. He wanted to be the one to end it. He wanted all of these things, and so much more, and to such a degree that he was able to center himself, able to trick his overbearing master who had been invading his mind for all these years.

"I cannot be betrayed. I cannot be beaten. I see his mind. I see his every intent.” Snoke closed his eyes, thoroughly pleased with what he was certain was about to take place, “Yes. I see him turning the lightsaber to strike true.”

Kylo raised his lightsaber towards Rey with his right hand, but with his left, he used the Force to turn the Skywalker lightsaber which was still situated beside Snoke.

Snoke was completely unaware of Kylo's ulterior maneuver. Rey, also unaware, could only cling to hope as she stared up into Kylo's eyes, and he felt only strength as he stared into hers, realizing he was going to be able to do it - he was going to defeat Snoke.

"And now, foolish child, he ignites it and KILLS his true enemy!" Snoke said, correctly.

Kylo clenched his left hand, igniting the lightsaber next to Snoke directly into him. Snoke was, in fact, beaten and betrayed.


	7. Pieces

With a flick of his fingers, Kylo brought the lightsaber he had just used to impale Snoke flying toward Rey and himself, slicing Snoke in half. Rey reached up and caught the lightsaber in mid-flight. As Snoke fell to pieces, Rey stood, lightsaber in hand, facing Kylo. The enormity of what had just happened and the fact that they were really there together, standing face to face, reignited their morale and their sense of their connection. Without saying a word to each other, they both knew what the other was thinking and feeling. They both felt that what had just occurred was proof enough that their vision was real and this moment was a major step towards it. They both also knew that, before anything else, they needed to get out of their current predicament, and that they'd be able to do it - together. 

Kylo ignited his lightsaber as he and Rey stood with their eyes still locked. They held onto that moment for as long as they possibly could, twisting around to be back to back just in time to take on the guards that had been lining the throne room.

Rey and Kylo moved liked interconnected pieces - twisting side to side together in the center of the circle of eight attacking guards. She would swing her lightsaber and he would block and shove with his on his side. She would lunge to stab and he would strike downwards. It became a pattern. They both played off of each other, creating a flurry of light and sparks in their synchronicity, and throughout the battle, they were both highly aware of where the other was and what they were doing, even when they were facing away from each other.

As the fight went on, they moved about the room, separating from each other in pursuit of the guards they had turned to face. Rey fought with the passion that Kylo had seen in her in the woods on Starkiller Base, yelling fiercely and at one point launching a guard's electro-chain whip to the wall, starting a fire. Kylo was aggressive as well, but decidedly more calculated in his movements. He caught a glimpse of Rey struggling against a guard during a brief moment when his adversaries had backed off, but as he jumped back into his fight, he knew she'd be able to handle herself. They both fought with boundless power, and yet also remained in harmony with each other.

During his scuffle, Kylo lost hold of his lightsaber and got caught in a headlock. At the same time, Rey got stuck in a mirrored position on the other side of the room, but she still had her lightsaber. She was able to free herself and kill her last guard. She then turned to see Ben struggling, and with no weapon.

"Ben!" she called to him, and threw him her lightsaber.

He caught it and instantly ignited it into the face of the guard behind him. The guard fell backward, releasing Kylo from the headlock.

With the last attacker dead and the balanced chaos ended, they were left with just the sound of the crackling fire. Rey ran toward the magnifying glass, "The fleet! Order them to stop firing! There's still time to save the fleet!" 

Kylo didn't respond to her. He instead walked toward the throne and the pieces of his former master.

"Ben?" She said gingerly. 

"It's time to let old things die." Kylo said, panting, "Snoke, Skywalker,” He turned and walked towards Rey as flames gently showered down and littered the room amongst the remnants of the fight, "the Sith, the Jedi, the rebels - let it all die. Rey," Kylo lifted his hand and extended it to her, his glove left on this time, "I want you to join me. We can rule together and bring a new order to the galaxy!"

"Don't do this, Ben. Please don't go this way." She was almost in tears by the end of her words.

“No - no - you're still HOLDING ON! Let go!" he yelled at her, pushing her further into her anguish. 

Once the melee was over, they had fallen back into the disagreement that had arisen just before they came into the throne room. They both were still fighting for their interpretations - their sides - of the same vision. The disparity quickly brought them back down from the high they had reached while battling together as a team. Kylo pushed hard for his version of their future as Rey felt hers slipping away. She was seeing him again not as Ben Solo, but as Kylo Ren, the man who had fought against her, a man who lusted for power. She also returned to thinking that the vision she had seen had been engineered by Snoke, and that Kylo must have been given a separate false vision tailor-made to have a similar affect on him as hers did on her. It seemed to her that there was no link between them after all - everything they had experienced hadn’t been real. She felt absolutely crushed.

Rey's unwillingness to join him, after all he had just done for and with her, and everything he was wanting to give to her, started to make Kylo also doubt the authenticity of what he had seen and felt. Even so, he didn't want to give up on her.

"Do you want to know the truth abut your parents? Or have you always known?" he asked her, in a much calmer tone than he had just been using, getting back to the topic that she was so distressed about during their last bond - when they had first felt truly unified. Tears started to fall from Rey's eyes as Kylo walked up to her. "You've just hidden it away. You know the truth. Say it." She just stared at him. "Say it." he repeated.

"They were nobody." she finally admitted.

"They were filthy junk traders. Sold you off for drinking money."

Rey tried in vain to stop herself from crying at the harshness of what he was saying to her. It wasn’t so much having to finally accept who her parents were that was painful for her - she actually surprisingly felt some alleviation in that respect - it was the disparaging way that he spoke about them - about her. It was also the realization that he wanted to remain on his dark path after everything she had hoped for for him.

He continued, not aware that it might have benefitted him to delicately phrase what he was trying to say, "They're dead in a pauper's grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story. You come from nothing. You're nothing."

She looked down with her tears streaming quietly down her cheeks.

"But not to me." he added, causing her to look back up at him, hurt and reasonably confused by his choice of words. "Join me." He presented his hand to her again, still gloved. With no response from her, he took another step closer with his hand hanging in wait. "Please." he added, almost breathlessly and close to tears himself. The intensity of their connection was impossible to ignore. He fearfully lingered, waiting for her to take his hand, and by doing so, confirm that she felt it too. But she couldn't agree to the strings attached to his offer and was doing all she could to fight against the gravity between them, telling herself it was all Snoke’s doing.

Rey slowly raised her hand toward his, pausing for a moment, but then she quickly moved to summon the Skywalker lightsaber from his other hand.

As they struggled over possession of the lightsaber, with it stuck in mid-air between them, it seemed that everything they had been building towards had been undone - they were to be enemies again. But just as they had been separated when they fought on Starkiller Base due to an enormous fissure that split between them, so too did the lightsaber split apart, propelling them both backwards, away from each other. 

Kylo was knocked out by the blast, but Rey got up, grabbed the two halves of the lightsaber and hurried out of the throne room. As she made her escape, she did her best to turn the pangs she felt from losing everything she had come there so hopeful for into energy to keep her moving so she could get away from there as quickly as possible. 

When Kylo awoke to the reality that he and Rey had created, he took his place as the new Supreme Leader and got right to the task at hand. He and the First Order were going to follow Rey and the last of the Resistance to where they had fled - the Resistance base on Crait. They needed to finish them off. All the while, Kylo felt completely heartbroken - he knew what she saw him as once again - but he needed to get beyond it. This entire ordeal had been set up by Snoke. What they both had fallen for were his lies. Her reaction needed to reinforce this for him - she was gone, she left him, she abandoned their future, and therefore there was no future for them. It was all a hoax.


	8. Hopes

Kylo Ren and Rey were both on Crait during the standoff between the First Order and the Resistance - Rey shooting down and drawing away fighters and then helping members of the Resistance escape out a back way while Kylo led the First Order, as newly minted Supreme Leader, and then fought one on one with Luke Skywalker. In taking him on, even though Kylo later discovered that Luke wasn't truly physically there, Kylo was able to finally confront the one man who was meant to help him understand his power and guide him against the likes of Snoke but who instead turned on him and sent him running, with nowhere else to go, straight to Snoke and years of torment. Here was the man who, second to Snoke, was a catalyst for his becoming a monster.

Luke's trick was revealed once enough time had passed for the Resistance to make their getaway. He had finally come out of hiding, and in doing so, given up his life, in order to help the Resistance, but he also did it for Ben. It was his atonement - his one last attempt to try to save Ben from himself, to try to stop him from permanently ridding himself of any way of escaping from total darkness. 

After having his uncle disappear before his eyes, Kylo, left feeling altogether spent and empty, went inside the base and by himself into a room where his mother had been only a short time before. He spotted a familiar object on the ground - his father's golden dice. The heightened emotional turbulence Kylo had been experiencing, and all in such a short amount of time, made him ache for something he had never truly had. He had been so used to bottling up his feelings or having them invaded against his will, but now he wanted desperately to be able to open up, to try to make sense of it all. He was, of course, only interested in doing so with one person, but she was no longer within reach. She had left him when he was unable to say or do anything to try to stop her, then he had fought so ruthlessly, driving away any chance of reconciling. And with the reveal of Snoke’s trickery, and his timely death shortly thereafter, their linking up was now a thing of the past.

As Kylo bent down to pick up the dice, he thought of how he so desired to connect with her again and, suddenly, a new Force-bond formed. Kylo looked up to see Rey and she, as she was making sure everyone had gotten on the Millennium Falcon, looked down to see Kylo. They were both stunned. This meant that they were able to link up without Snoke - which meant they probably already had! As they stared wordlessly at each other, they both were able to instantaneously discern that the first few Force-bonds that had been so oddly timed and brief must have been forged by Snoke - but that last time! They both had felt the surge of that connection and the difference in it from the rest of the bonds. That one had been their own, they knew that to be true, which in turn meant that the vision they shared when they touched hands during that bond was also theirs - it hadn't been manufactured by Snoke. 

What did this mean? Was that vision still possible? At the very least it meant that all that they had felt was real. Their connection through the Force was real! They both realized that Kylo was the one to initiate this bond, but Rey had also been open. She had just felt the massive loss of Luke through the Force and was currently in a mode of making sure that no one was getting left behind, so it was able to just happen. Their connection was effortless - they both didn't even realize that they were forming another bond because they thought it wouldn't happen anymore without Snoke. 

As the feelings they had been futilely trying to deny came flooding back in, Rey decided that she had had enough for one day. She was emotionally exhausted. She had been on a similar, sometimes mirrored, ride to that which Kylo had been on, only to now hit yet another dramatic shift, and she did not want to deal with Kylo right after all he had just done. The Resistance also needed to get out of there immediately and Kylo had no idea how to start what he needed to say anyway, so, coming to terms with the amount of control they had in these bonds, Rey took her cue and shut the door on the Millennium Falcon, ending the bond.

Their connection had always existed, they just hadn’t been aware of it. Snoke also had no understanding of it - he assumed that the ease he had experienced in linking them up was due to the greatness of his own power. He knew he was opening a door between them, but he didn't realize that he hadn't actually created the door - it had already been there and he was just serving to force it open when they wouldn't have wanted it open. Now that they knew of its existence and knew how to use it, it truly felt like their own connection that they alone controlled - but they both had to be open for it to work.

It was no mere coincidence that the Force awoke in Rey the same time that Kylo had made it to her nowhere planet, that she was able to fully discover her powers during and immediately after he had interrogated her using his Force powers. When their powers met, hers, which had been dormant for so long, sprung to life. Likewise, when their hands met, they stimulated their connection, each becoming enlivened at the recognition of it. Rey and Ben were linked through the Force - they were twin flames who had finally found each other. Their meeting was inevitable, just as their reuniting seemed to be - especially now that they understood their capabilities of bonding through the Force.

After Rey disappeared, Kylo looked down at the golden chain he held in his hand and it, too, disappeared. He seemed to be stuck in an uneasy pattern of having things disintegrate right before his eyes. 

Grief washed over him, and yet there was also an underlying dark shadow, which had haunted him all his life, that had been lifted from him now that Snoke was dead. With both of his former masters gone, Kylo no longer had to conform to either of the extremes - all light or all dark - that they had constricted him to fall in line with. It was now completely up to him. He needed to decide for himself, realize for himself who he truly was. Rey was also at a similar stage where she could start with a clean slate. Just as she had helped Kylo to be able to move forward in his life by risking coming to the Supremacy, proving that she thought he was worth fighting for, therefore encouraging him to stand up for himself, and for her, so too had Kylo helped her to be able to move forward by bringing her, although callously so, to admit and accept the truth about her parents. She could finally let go of the past that had been weighing her down her entire life and turn to look to the future.

There was so much to process, so much to come to terms with. And yet, even though Kylo felt shattered by all that had happened and all that he had done, and Rey felt somber and addled by everything as well, their hopes for each other, and for their vision, while dampened by the current circumstances, had been rekindled. 

Snoke couldn't have planned for the bond that already existed between Ben and Rey. He couldn't have understood depth of he was toying with. After all these years, these two interlocking pieces had finally been able to come together, and they needed to come together again, as they had seen in their vision. To do that, Rey and Ben would each have to reconcile with where they needed to stand in the Force and then what that vision could truly mean. They were going to have to meet in the middle.


End file.
